


make my heart your home

by atlantisairlock



Category: Ocean's 8 (2018)
Genre: Abusive Parents, Ambiguous Relationships, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst with a Happy Ending, Backstory, Character Study, Contentment, Developing Relationship, Domestic Fluff, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/F, Future Fic, Happy Ending, Introspection, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-25 22:26:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15650145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atlantisairlock/pseuds/atlantisairlock
Summary: Daphne and Tammy are more alike than Tammy could ever imagine. Finding that out changes everything.





	make my heart your home

**Author's Note:**

> sprang mostly from my detailed headcanon about daphne's past because I Love Angst! 
> 
> content warning: daphne's backstory is Not Nice. her mother is a garbage fire. proceed with all necessary caution.
> 
> title from 'hanging on' by totem.

Six months after they pull the heist off and five-and-three-quarters after Daphne Kluger joins the team, Tammy can safely say that she’s most surprised by the fact that Daphne is very good with kids. 

“Why wouldn’t I be good with kids?” Daphne demands to Constance while she helps Tammy fix up Caleb and Zoe’s lunches. Constance shrugs, sipping on her Red Bull. “You just don’t seem like the type. No siblings, child star, career woman, no kids. You know.”

Unseen to Constance, who’s on the other side of the kitchen, Daphne’s hands briefly go still and Tammy sees something flash in her eyes. It lasts for just a moment and then Daphne’s back to normal, her tone even. “Fair enough. But I’ve worked with a lot of kids in my movies. And I had younger cousins. You figure it out.” 

And she doesn’t sound like she’s lying, but Tammy gives her a sidelong look anyway. Daphne’s a good actress, one of the best in recent history. And she knows she saw something in Daphne’s expression, even if she isn’t sure what exactly.

 

 

Daphne isn’t just _good_ with kids, Tammy comes to learn. She genuinely likes them and enjoys their company. Despite her packed schedule and the public image she’s contractually bound to uphold, she’ll willingly drop absolutely everything for Caleb and Zoe. When Tammy first brings the kids to the warehouse she’s the first one to really get to know them, and play with them, and she’s still the one they’re closest to. To them she’s Aunt Daphne, the one who will put an extra cookie in their lunch and take them out to the playground after school and patiently help them with their homework. 

Caleb calls her _Mom_ once or twice, always flushes and tries to cover it up. Daphne will smile and Tammy will see the tightness around her eyes, her lips, and tell Caleb it’s okay, and he can call Daphne ‘Mom’ too if he wants. 

“You don’t need to,” Daphne tells her. “You’re his mother, I’m just - we’re just your friends. Your team.” 

But every time Caleb shyly (then happily) (then unashamedly) addresses Daphne that way after, this light comes on in Daphne’s eyes, this light that Tammy never sees anywhere else, and it’s not something she wants to take away from Daphne.

 

 

It would be wrong to say she _suspects_ \- she’s honestly too busy handling her rambuctious twosome to have any time to entertain wild suspicions about her teammates and she’s not that kind of disrespectful, anyway - but when it clicks, it clicks. 

To be clear, she never intends to eavesdrop. She doesn’t expect anyone to even be in the house that afternoon, which is _precisely_ why she’s taking the opportunity to monopolise the kitchen and bake cookies for Caleb’s upcoming class party without Nine Ball or Lou trying to steal any while her back’s turned. She’s digging through the fridge trying to figure out _where_ Debbie misplaced the butter _again_ when she hears it - a soft voice, coming from the laundry room, sounding familiar, yet - 

 _I know, sweetheart,_ she just manages to make out, the words muffled through the thin wall, the low voice. _I’ll see you soon, I promise. I can’t wait to see you again._

Tammy’s suddenly startled. That’s _Daphne_ \- Daphne’s in the laundry room, and talking to someone - on the phone, Tammy assumes, and… to who? _Sweetheart_ \- a term of endearment. A significant other? When did Daphne start dating anyone? Well, according to the tabloids she finds a new boyfriend each week, but the girls know better than that and she hasn’t seen anybody since her short-lived interest in Claude. Tammy’s not exactly surprised Daphne can keep a secret - she grew up in the toxicity of Hollywood - but it still makes something clench tight in her chest anyway and she’s not sure why. Maybe the thought of Daphne not trusting them enough to tell them, the thought of Daphne still seeing herself as an outsider - 

Her train of thought is interrupted by Daphne speaking again, just barely discernible. _Be a good girl, okay? Do all your homework and eat your vegetables. Mommy misses you too, baby girl. I love you so much. I’ll call you soon. Be good for Grandma Sophie._

Everything comes to a screeching halt and everything Tammy assumed from five seconds ago flies straight out of the window, and _wait, WHAT?_

Wait, Daphne has a - 

The door to the laundry room flies open and Daphne suddenly appears in the doorway, cellphone still tucked in her hand and eyes unmistakably red. Tammy is still standing there, holding the fridge door open, and their eyes meet. She realises suddenly her jaw is still slack and quickly shuts her mouth, trying to avert her glance. _Shit._

“Oh,” Daphne says, sounding startled and a little terrified and it makes Tammy’s heart hurt, the guilt instantly washing over her. “I didn’t know you were going to - I didn’t realise you were here.” 

“I didn’t hear anything,” Tammy says, and immediately feels like a complete idiot. “I mean, I didn’t - I’m here to make Caleb cookies. He needs to bring something to his class party, and kids like cookies, and I’m pretty good at baking, not so much at cooking, so - and Debbie’s a menace in the kitchen, and she’s put the butter in the wrong place again, and I’m… trying… to find it.” 

Daphne just stands there for another long five seconds, leaving Tammy feeling even more like an asshole than she already did, before she smiles, a small thing. “I can help.” 

“You don’t need to,” Tammy starts, but Daphne’s already reaching past the bok choy and holding out the butter. “Here. Now what cookies are you making?”

 

 

They stay quiet while they make the cookies. Daphne doesn’t talk about what she said over the phone and Tammy knows better than to ask - if Daphne wants to tell her, she will, and it’s not her place to pry. And she really does need to get the cookies done, so all the conversation that passes between them is culinary-related for over an hour.

It isn’t until they put the trays in the oven and are both standing around and waiting for them to be done when it gets a little awkward. Daphne stares straight ahead and Tammy starts feeling more like she should apologise, and eventually, she summons up the courage to do so. “I’m sorry.”

Daphne doesn’t respond, but she does pick up a fork and twirl it absently, still not looking at her. Tammy supposes she deserves that, and doesn’t push it.

Until - “sorry for what?”

Tammy swallows. “You were obviously having a private conversation. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, and I shouldn’t have, and I’m sorry.” 

Daphne shrugs, the movement graceful. “It’s alright. I trust you.” She puts the fork back down and turns to Tammy, and when their eyes meet she feels a shiver go down her spine - Daphne has never looked so serious and so solemn and it’s such a difference from her usual self. “If anyone had to find out, I’m glad it was you.”

That statement should _not_ make Tammy feel as many conflicting emotions - gratitude, shock, pride, sorrow - as it does, but here they are. Against all her common sense, she blurts out her immediate response. “Why?”

The look Daphne gives her is gently amused, but tinged with this unspeakable ache. “Because you’re a mother too,” she says, softly, like she’s just given up her biggest secret, and it hits Tammy that she just has. 

It breaks something between them, tears down this barrier Tammy never even realised was there before. Suddenly Daphne looks younger, and more vulnerable, and more _real_ than she’s ever been. It suddenly dawns on her that Daphne puts up an act in front of the cameras, but even after moving into the warehouse and becoming part of the team, she was still doing it - just in a different guise. It’s gone now, leaving just what seems to be Daphne Kluger, person. Not A-list actress or Hollywood’s angel, just herself. 

“That’s why, you know,” Daphne continues, still smiling, but it’s tight again, a bit forced. “I like kids. I love kids. When they’re around, I just… want to protect them, and see them smile, and hear them laugh, and know that they’re having fun, and they’re happy." Tammy makes a sound, unbidden, something _aching_ inside her, and Daphne stops, glancing away. "Sorry. You don’t need to hear about all that shit if you don’t want to.” 

Her body language, her tone - everything telegraphs how ready she is for Tammy to wave it off and for their relationship to go back to what it was before she heard what she heard, but Tammy stops her right there. “I do. I want to.” 

Daphne meets her eyes, then, properly, like she’s seeing her - really seeing her. Tammy holds that gaze until Daphne finally nods. “Okay,” she says. “I trust you.”

 

 

The story, Tammy learns, is this - Daphne’s mother is an evil fucking bitch, and if she wasn’t already dead Tammy would’ve gone straight to Debbie and asked her to find some way to ruin the woman’s life. 

“That’s not exactly what you’re supposed to be getting from the story,” Daphne says, but as a mother herself it is _exactly_ what impresses itself on Tammy - the fact that a mother, any mother, would be so willing to hurt her own daughter this deeply.

The actual story, as Daphne tells it, is really this - she was nineteen, and fell in love, and five months into secretly dating her boyfriend she found out she was pregnant. 

“You have to understand,” Daphne says, and Tammy doesn’t, she really fucking doesn’t. “I was on the cusp of becoming a really big name. I had three movies lined up and we were in talks about a TV series, and a reality show. To be saddled with a baby, to become known as just another stupid teenage girl who got herself pregnant, to have my career derailed by my face on the tabloids - look, over twenty years ago my mother was in the same situation.” Daphne takes a breath and holds it, exhales slowly. “She and my dad - they were eighteen, nineteen, and they were both actors, too. They met on set and were just fooling around and I ended up happening, and… their families forced them to get married or they would get disowned, and cut off from the family fortune, and they couldn’t afford that. So they settled down, and got married, and my dad kept chasing his career while his wife had their baby and raised her almost singlehandedly, and she never reached the height of the success she had before she had me. She used to yell at me about that, when it got really bad between her and my dad. That it was my fault her dream was dashed, and instead of being a star she just became my mother.” 

Tammy is shaking from anger at this point, can’t even see from how furious she is, can’t believe Daphne has had to deal with this for _so long_ she can say it all with a straight face, an even tone. “She was determined to live through me. She decided I would be the star she never became, and… my getting pregnant, to her, it was like seeing history repeat itself. So she took action. She bribed my boyfriend to get the hell out of dodge and never see me again, and she told me to get an abortion.” 

“Your boyfriend left,” Tammy says flatly. “Is _he_ still alive, unlike your mother?”

Daphne stops to give her a look. “Tammy, I don’t want him dead.”

“He _left_ you.” She almost spits it, barely thinking straight from rage. “He left you for _what?_ A couple hundred dollars?” 

“Try a couple hundred thousand,” Daphne interrupts, giving a soft, quiet laugh. “I don’t blame him, okay? It was a lot of money, and he didn’t want to deal with a baby anyway.” She shakes her head. “But I did. I always wanted a kid, _always,_ I used to play house when I was younger, I used to watch all those family-friendly flicks and wish for something like that, I wanted so badly to be _better,_ to be the parent I wanted to  _have,_  and… I wanted to have the baby. I wanted my baby. So I threatened to kill myself if she made me have an abortion. And I guess my mom was too afraid of losing the culmination of all her time, and money, and effort, so she backed off. And I thought that was it. I thought I’d won.” 

The pain starts to seep into Daphne’s voice and the blinding anger in Tammy’s chest suddenly and instantly gives way to this overwhelming desire to go over and pull Daphne close and hold her, and take away the trauma, the memories. Daphne sighs. “Nine months. I got put under house arrest and my mother worked with the media to make sure my pregnancy was never known, and then I had my baby. My little girl. I held her in my arms and I heard her cry and it was the most beautiful moment in my entire life. You know.” 

Tammy does know, can empathise completely with the wonder that enters Daphne’s voice. Wishes that was it, wishes she didn’t have to hear the second part, but - 

“I got an hour with her, and then my mom took her away,” Daphne says, so quiet Tammy can barely hear her. “I didn’t even get to name her before she was taken from me and given to a very old family friend to raise as her own. A bit of shady dealing you always see in the upper echelons of society, and that was it. Legally I had never had a child.” She stops there, pauses for a long time, and eventually this bright smile appears on her face, the first real one Tammy’s seen since she first stepped into the kitchen. “I owe Aunt Sophie everything. She knew from the start that my mother couldn’t be trusted, and she stepped in to take my daughter just so she could make sure I could see her again. She settled everything behind my mother’s back, in secret. She’s the reason why I’m still legally a parent. She’s the reason why I still get to see my little girl and still get talk to her on the phone and she calls me Mom.” 

Tammy can’t breathe as Daphne takes out her phone and unlocks it, swiping to an album in her camera roll and showing Tammy a picture of a sweet little girl in overalls and a cap, sitting in a garden and playing with a toy shovel and plastic bucket. Daphne sounds so purely happy when she speaks that it makes Tammy’s throat tighten. “That’s my daughter. She’s eight. Just a little older than Caleb. She’s so smart, and so creative, and she’s the best in her grade at math. She can sing, too. She’s amazing.” 

“She looks like you,” Tammy says, because the girl does - has Daphne’s eyes, Daphne’s smile, and she’s so beautiful. Daphne smiles proudly, dimpling a little. “Her name’s Kara. It means _beloved_ in Latin. I named her that so she would know. So she would remember. I never wanted to give her away. She’s always going to be my baby girl, even if we’re far apart.”

And that’s the thing, because Daphne’s mother died two years ago - good riddance - and Daphne’s career is on the up and up, and even before the heist she had way more money than she knew what to do with and Tammy doesn’t understand why she didn’t take Kara back, until Daphne does a simple Google search of her own name and shows her all the trashy, venomous articles spouting untruths about her. “She’s safe where she is. She goes to a good school and has good friends and her life is stable and secure and she gets to be her own natural self and never has to worry about being harrassed by paparazzi. If I take her back and let the world - _my_ world - acknowledge her, she will _always_ be Daphne Kluger’s daughter and nothing more. She will have to suffer through everything that comes with it, and I’m not doing that to her.” 

Tammy is suddenly struck by how different Daphne is from the persona she shows to the entire world, to the cameras. Selfless, and mature, and sensible, and so deeply and staggeringly and purely good at heart. She’s suddenly struck by how similar they are, how she’s never felt closer to Daphne than she has in this moment - both of them now bound together by a secret, by a similarity, a shared bond. 

And maybe, a little bit how beautiful she is, how incredible, and how much Tammy wants to step over and take her hand and - 

They hear the front door opening, followed by the sound of Amita and Rose talking at the tops of their voices, and Debbie yelling _we’re home!,_ and the spell is broken. Daphne turns to the cooling trays of cookies. “Better hide these before Nine and Lou go on the attack.”

“Daphne,” Tammy says, and falters, not sure exactly what’s supposed to come after. Daphne meets her gaze, then her expression softens, and she nods. There’s a lot in that nod - _I know, thank you, I trust you._

And maybe that’s really all that needs to be said. 

 

 

After that, Tammy invites Daphne out whenever the kids are going somewhere fun and their schedules match. Caleb and Zoe will clamour to get ice cream when the truck comes down the road and she’ll ask Daphne to go with them. When it’s just them, she’ll quietly ask about Kara, once in a while, and really _listen_ when Daphne answers. She learns to love Kara without even meeting her, almost like an inevitability.

One afternoon, she’s folding Zoe’s laundry in her room when Daphne comes in with her phone to her ear. “Hey. You busy?”

“Not really.” Tammy straightens up and turns around to see Daphne holding the phone out to her. “Great. Want to say hi to Kara?” 

Tammy’s mouth goes dry, because _wait,_ what does this mean? Who has Daphne told her daughter she is, and _god,_ the sheer amount of trust that this gesture is steeped in, and - 

“Say hi to Aunt Tammy, honey, she’s Mommy’s good friend,” Daphne says, and before Tammy can say anything she has a cellphone in her hand and a little girl’s voice chirping in her ear. “Hi Aunt Tammy! Mommy says you’re her friend and I should say hi because you’re nice and maybe one day I’ll get to meet you!” 

Which confuses Tammy even more, although it’s wonderful to finally hear the voice of the kid she’s been slowly growing fond of without having once met her, and when Daphne ends the call with a smile she gives her a look. _“Maybe one day I’ll get to meet you?_ What was that?”

Daphne shrugs, giving her a quick grin. “I have a visit scheduled, and my ride ditched on me. I was wondering if you could drive. Thought I would let her know that Mommy's got a new friend coming over, you know?” 

Tammy wonders briefly if Daphne is telling the truth about her so-called ride ditching on her, and decides that if the end game is having Daphne in her passenger seat driving down to meet her daughter, she doesn’t really care. 

 

 

It’s a week - and an hour’s drive - later that Tammy pulls up in front of a house in the suburbs with a moderately disguised Daphne in tow. Daphne hops out and goes straight to the door, ringing the bell insistently until someone comes to open it - a stern-looking grey-haired woman whose expression melts right into a delighted smile the moment she takes Daphne in. Daphne grins right back and throws her arms around her. “Aunt Sophie!”

“Hello, my dear,” she says, kissing Daphne on the forehead. “Come in, come in. You’re right on time. Kara has been so excited to see - “

Tammy hears someone yell _MOMMY!_ at the top of their voice from inside and there’s a blur by the door and then Daphne’s stumbling back with a small girl clinging to her, arms around her neck. “Mommy you’re here you’re here you’re here!” 

“Hi, baby,” says Daphne, voice a little rough. “Whoa, you’ve gotten so much bigger since I last saw you!” She hooks her arm under the girl’s legs and hoists her further up so she can peer past her shoulder. “Soon I won’t be able to carry you any more.” 

They make their way past the door into the house, Kara’s chattering continuing, but Tammy lingers, feeling like she’s intruding. Who is she, anyway, to be here? Who is she really to Daphne? She can’t even really explain to this lovely old woman how she got to know Daphne because nobody would believe her and she’d be arrested if they did. She knows, rationally, that she should probably just excuse herself and go to a nearby cafe until Daphne’s ready for her ride home, and if she just takes a couple steps back - 

“Well, head right on in,” Sophie says, smiling benignly at her. “You’re Daphne’s friend, aren’t you? The one she told me about?”

Tammy wonders what exactly Daphne has told Sophie about, but nods weakly and does as she’s asked, taking her shoes off and entering the house, into the living room, where Daphne’s sitting on the couch with Kara on her lap showing her something from a book. 

“… and I got the highest score in class again for our math test,” Tammy catches as she gets closer - close enough to see Kara settled snugly against Daphne’s chest, Daphne’s arm around her and smiling fondly down at the paper Kara’s showing her. “I got everything right, and Miss Cookson said I was one of the smartest kids she’s _ever_ taught.” 

“That’s good, sweetheart, but don’t go boasting about it, yeah?” Daphne taps her on the knee. “Remember what Grandma Sophie and I taught you? Be kind, be respectful, and…”

“And don’t get a swelled head,” Kara completes. “I won’t, Mommy! I didn’t say anything about my grade or what Miss Cookson said, I just went to help Mandy and Julie and James because they were having a hard time and they were really grateful and I was happy too and Julie’s really nice and she’s my best friend now.” 

Daphne raises her eyebrows. “Really? What happened to Tanya?” 

“Oh, she’s still my best friend. Now we’re _all_ best friends!” Kara says cheerfully. Daphne’s answering grin doesn’t do anything to ease Tammy’s discomfort that she doesn’t belong here, that she should leave Daphne to be with her daughter. She stands by the couch just looking down on the two of them - they look perfect, like they fit together, two halves of a whole - until Daphne glances up and raises an eyebrow. “Why’re you standing there, Tam? Come sit down.”

With some reserve, Tammy sits. Daphne leans against her, shoulders pressed together, and nudges Kara gently. “Remember Mommy told you about her friend Tammy, Kara? This is Aunt Tammy. Say hi, honey.”

Kara waves in her direction, smiling wide. “Hi Aunt Tammy! It’s nice to meet you. Are you an actress too? You’re so pretty!”

Tammy blinks, taken aback, and feels the flush in her cheeks. Daphne laughs a little bashfully and ducks her head, pressing her forehead to Kara’s. “Kara, you can’t just say things like that, sweetheart.”

“But it’s true!” Kara protests, and Tammy can’t help but be endeared by her plain honesty. “Thank you, Kara,” she says softly. “You’re very sweet. I’m not an actress. I’m just…” Well, she can’t exactly say she’s a fence, and it’s a little difficult to explain her current job. She decides to go with something Kara will definitely understand. “I’m a mom.” 

Daphne shoots her a little frown, but Kara grins wide in understanding. “Just like Mommy!”

“Yes, just like your mother. Only I have two children. About your age, a little younger.” She thinks Caleb and Zoe would like Kara. They could be friends, the three of them. “They’re a lot like you.” 

Kara looks immediately intrigued and starts fishing for information. Daphne doesn’t cut in - just listens, and looks on, her arms wrapped around her daughter’s waist but her eyes trained on Tammy, the whole time.

 

 

They don’t go home until Daphne’s put Kara to bed - read her a story and tucked her in and kissed her goodnight. Tammy waits in the hallway while Daphne turns off the light and closes the door behind her. For a good minute, she just stands against the shut door, head tilted back and breathing slow, even. When she finally opens her eyes again, they’re full of sorrow and longing. “I hate leaving her,” she confesses. “It makes me feel guilty, and I always wonder if it would be better for me to bring her with me. It wouldn’t, and I know it, but I hate myself for leaving her behind, every single time.”

It makes Tammy wonder how Daphne can remain standing, because the mere thought of leaving Caleb and Zoe behind for anything, even for their own good - the greater good - it rips a wound inside her. When she went off to help with the heist, she knew how long she would be away and that she was coming back to them, and even when she was considering moving into the warehouse for good… if they had said no, she would have left and never looked back. Daphne’s strength is something she can barely fathom, and not for the first time, Tammy is helpless but to just look at her and marvel. 

“Come on,” she says instead. “Let’s go home.”

Daphne exhales quietly and pushes herself away from the door, making her way down the stairs. “Yeah. Let’s go home.”

 

 

Daphne stays quiet the whole ride home, and Tammy doesn’t push - she never does. Daphne looks like she’s deep in thought, anyway, and she really doesn’t want to intrude. She feels strange enough that she was there while Daphne was helping Kara with her homework, and they were having dinner in front of the television, watching a cartoon together. And maybe Daphne invited her, implicitly, but Tammy isn’t sure why exactly. 

It isn’t until they pull up back home and Daphne finally speaks that it clicks. “Tammy?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think I’m a bad mother?”

Tammy frowns. “Daphne, why would you think that?”

Daphne laughs, mirthless, putting her arm over her eyes. “I see my daughter maybe once a month, and she’s being raised by someone who isn’t even related to her by blood, and in the eyes of the whole world - even the women we share our home with - she doesn’t exist. Every time I see her again she seems to have grown, and changed, and her life is different. I don’t know if she cries at night, and I can’t be at her parent-teacher conferences, and if she hurts herself, I’m not the first person the hospital calls. I - “

“Daphne,” Tammy interrupts. She reaches across to grasp Daphne’s shoulder, because she’s not sure how much more of this she can hear. “Daphne, listen to me. From one mother to another, okay? You’re _not_ a bad mother. Honestly, from what I know, I’m not sure you would be capable of being one. You have done so much to keep your daughter safe and happy, at great personal sacrifice. You do your best for her and you love her, and it’s obvious she loves you too. So don’t worry that you’re a bad parent, okay? You’re not. I promise.” She pauses, but it doesn’t feel like she’s done. She’s missing something. 

Daphne turns to her, biting her lip. “It’s okay that I’m around Caleb and Zoe so much? Tammy, I owe Aunt Sophie everything, but when Kara was younger, when I was getting texts every day on set about her milestones that I’d missed… I was so bitter. I hated the idea that I might be Kara’s mother in name but she would _always_ see Sophie as her real mother, and she would take my place. I just don’t ever want to do the same to anyone. Caleb calls me _mom_ and I love it but I just don’t want to overstep, okay? You - this. This is too important to me.” 

Has this been plaguing Daphne for so long? Tammy is suddenly angry with herself for not making it clearer to Daphne before that she’s okay with Caleb regarding her as a maternal figure, that she’s okay with both her kids being so fond of Daphne. Without hesitation she reaches over to take Daphne’s hand, squeezes it lightly. “It’s okay. You’re not with Kara as often as you want, and I can’t imagine how much that hurts, and if being with them helps, then be with them. They love you too.” 

And she’s not really sure how long this has been building, isn’t sure whether that day in the kitchen was the catalyst or just made it clear to her. She wants to say it, certainly _feels_ it - _they love you, and so do I_ \- but maybe it’s too much, too soon. Maybe Daphne’s here with her just because they’re kindred spirits, and nothing more.

But then she squeezes back, her hand still linked tightly in Tammy’s, and leans across to press a quick kiss to Tammy’s cheek. “Thank you. You’re a good friend. And an amazing mother too.” 

There’s a moment where that hangs in the air, but then Daphne’s slipping out of the passenger seat and back into the house, and Tammy’s left there, wondering.

 

 

Things continue mostly as normal, after that. When she takes Caleb and Zoe out, Daphne comes along and they all have a good time. She drives Daphne to her monthly visits with Kara, who gets to know her pretty well and becomes fond of her. It’s nice, and she falls into a routine, and a year to the day they pulled off the heist, Tammy realises she’s never been happier and more content. 

They still don’t really give it a name, what they have between them, but when the eight of them sit down for movie marathon nights Daphne always finds her place next to Tammy, and tucks her head against Tammy’s shoulder, and sometimes they fall asleep like that, resting against each other, sharing that warmth. 

They don’t give it a name, but she’s happy, and she thinks Daphne is happy too, and that’s probably enough. 

 

 

They go out that night, one year later, to celebrate getting away with the most audacious jewel heist in recent history. They play pool in Nine’s billiard hall into the wee hours and end up sprawled around the room drinking and dozing, and Tammy finds herself gravitating into Daphne’s corner, eventually, lying in her lap. 

“I’ve been thinking,” Daphne says, stroking her fingers idly through Tammy’s blonde hair. “I’m happy here. Really happy.”

“That’s good,” Tammy replies, and firmly doesn’t let herself say _me too._ Daphne smiles down at her, warm. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’ve been spending more time away from the industry, and keeping on the down-low. And I’m a lot happier than I was before.” 

Tammy raises an eyebrow - there’s more in that than Daphne’s saying. Daphne grins back. “I’m thinking of changing careers. Doing something more low-key, taking myself out of the limelight, and… bringing Kara here. To be with me.” 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Daphne confirms. “I just… I’ve spent the past six months thinking about it. I’ve been keeping Kara away from me to keep her safe from the world I live in. A world that I was raised in but don’t love, not really. If I leave that world, I can bring her home. With me. With us.” 

A chill of doubt settles in Tammy’s heart. “Daphne, are you doing this because you still think you’re not a good mother?”

Daphne’s expression softens. “No. You were right - I might not be the best parent in the world, but I’m doing my best for my daughter, just trying to keep her safe and happy, and that’s what being a mom is about. But I think I don’t really just want it to be about motherhood. I’d really like Kara to have a family. The one I have, right here. With us.” She gestures vaguely around the room, but her eyes don’t leave Tammy’s. “With you.” 

It’s late, and the room is quiet, and Tammy’s a little buzzed and so are all of them, and it’s a year after their heist, and they’re happy together, the eight of them. Tammy’s not completely sure how long Daphne’s been considering this, but she’s not opposed to the idea - all of it. Kara being with them, joining Caleb and Zoe, joining the ranks, and Daphne being by her side. _Staying_ by her side. 

“Okay,” she finally says, circling back. Taking Daphne’s hand, smiling up at her. “I trust you.” 

And Daphne leans down, brushes a kiss to her forehead. “I know.” 

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: i'm fiercely pro-choice & so is the daphne i write. in my mind, there's a future in which the media does get wind of daphne's past & anti-choice groups try to twist her story to suit their agenda. she sues the hell out of them & makes sure everyone knows what she stands for. the whole point is that bodily autonomy belongs to nobody but yourself & you are the only one who gets to make choices for yourself. anti-choicers fuck off.


End file.
